


Work of Art

by theotheralissa



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 09:59:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4783181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theotheralissa/pseuds/theotheralissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ohno makes a sketch that inspires a lot of interest in a certain Aiba Masaki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Work of Art

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Kitto Slutparty 2012! Originally posted [here](http://kitto-slutparty.livejournal.com/5112.html)! :)

It’s been a while since Ohno has had the chance to draw anything. He tries, when he’s at home, but by the time he gets there after a long day at work the most he can manage is getting his sketchbook out and falling asleep. 

At first it’s a little frustrating, but then his fingers start itching to create something. He starts making sketches in the margins of his scripts, on the backs of his meeting notes. He even makes a sketch on the back of Sho’s hand, who smiles at it appreciatively for a moment but then immediately goes to the bathroom to wash it off. 

“He probably can’t show up on the news with a flying baby on his hand, you know,” Aiba says, comfortingly. 

And it’s true. But it doesn’t make Ohno’s need to draw any less intense. 

Finally there is a day at the office where everyone but Ohno is giving an interview, but he’s already finished his so he has about twenty minutes to himself. He’s not sleepy enough for a nap today and there is a spare sketchbook somewhere in his locker. He sets it up in the corner of the room - it’s a large book, about the length of his arm, and he starts to draw the first thing that comes to mind. 

It’s a line, in the beginning. One that meanders around the page before finally reaching its end at a point in the middle. It’s a shoulder maybe. A shoulder with a curve into a bicep, a point at the elbow and the long line of a forearm extending from there. 

It’s Aiba’s shoulder, he thinks, recognizing when Aiba had his hand on Ohno’s arm the day before. Ohno always notices things. The way lines and shapes form together. Four lines becomes the screen of a TV. A circle with a grid in the middle becomes a fan. Even if his mind doesn’t do anything with this information in the end, it’s always there. 

Fingers and fingertips and just as the rest of the guys are finishing with their interviews, Ohno is finishing with this arm. 

“Nice!” Jun says immediately coming up behind Ohno and admiring his work. 

Ohno beams a little, but he’s not ready to be proud of it just yet. It’s not really anything yet and he can’t predict what it will turn into until he gets there. 

“You guys going home now?” Aiba asks. “Oh, hey. Nice, Leader! We get an art studio in here?” 

“I have work,” Sho says. 

“Too bad,” Aiba says. “I was hoping we could go out...” 

“Come on when’s the last time that happened?” Nino says, clasping a hand on Ohno’s shoulder and leaning in to get a better look at the sketch, squinting his eyes. 

They’re too busy to go out together. Too tired at the end of the day and too busy in their personal lives let alone work. 

“Guess you’ll just have to admire my presence in the office,” Nino says, giving Aiba a little wink. 

Even when they’ve all gone, Ohno remains behind just a moment to add just a few more details. Some shading here and there. Then he closes up the book and turns the light off after himself when he leaves. 

\---

Ohno works on the picture for two days, during breaks and just before he leaves to go home for the day. By the end of the second day he’s worked his way over the curve of Aiba’s shoulder and to his neck. 

This is the state the drawing is in when Sho discovers it. He’s actually the last one to leave today, not Ohno, and he’s not sure if he should really be taking a look at his personal drawing like this. But he figures if Ohno were there he probably wouldn’t mind too much... 

His eyes travel from the fingertips up to the shoulder. It’s definitely Aiba’s, even if Ohno hasn’t labeled it as such, and the way he’s drawn it is so real that Sho feels as if he could reach right out and touch it. It would be warm skin there, not cool paper. 

Sho swallows. Because the next image in his mind is that he’s tracing his fingertips up the length of Aiba’s arm, so wrapped up in the image that he nearly jumps when someone enters the room. 

“Do you need a ride, Sakurai-san?” 

It’s one of the staff. It’s late already and she’s probably making the rounds, seeing who else is left in the building. 

“No, thank you,” Sho says. “I came in my car.” 

“Have a nice evening,” she says with a smile and Sho bows. 

Then he calls Aiba. 

\---

“So he just called you?” Nino asks. “Just like that?” 

He’s grinning, and Aiba pushes on his shoulder a little because that just makes it all even more embarrassing. 

“Yeah he called and said he wanted to meet,” Aiba says. “Like how I wanted to go out drinking or something right?” 

“And he kissed you,” Nino grins. 

“Yeah and I kissed him back,” Aiba grins too. 

“He probably told you not to tell me right?” 

“Yeah, but...” Aiba pauses. “Fuck.” 

Nino laughs. 

This morning, only Nino has work. Aiba knows that, but he couldn’t resist coming in first thing to tell him about the kiss. He could have mailed or called, he knows, but all night it feels like he’s been jumping out of his skin. He wanted to see Sho again today too. To see if he’d kiss him again. 

“Do you like him?” Nino asks. 

“I don’t know...” Aiba says. He can feel his cheeks getting hot. Then when he realizes that he can feel them getting even hotter. 

“Well he’s coming now so you can give him a big kiss if you want,” Nino says. Aiba turns around but he can’t hear or see anyone in the hallway from his angle. 

But just a moment later, Sho enters and Nino slips out the door at the same time. 

\---

Jun stumbles on the drawing in the morning after Ohno has been working on it for one week. Now Aiba’s face is clearly visible and Jun wonders when the idea for this drawing formed in Ohno’s head? It almost looks like his point of view on stage. Aiba’s skin dark against the bright lights, limbs forming strong shadows against the background. He’s holding one arm out, reaching for something. It’s a good drawing, but it’s expected since Ohno is the best artist out of the five of them. 

But there is something about this drawing. 

“What do you think?” Ohno asks. Jun didn’t even hear him approaching. 

“It’s really good,” he says. “Like we expect from you right?” He smiles. 

Ohno smiles proudly. 

\---

Sho and Aiba meet after work three times that week. Nino doesn’t know exactly what it is they do together, but Sho doesn’t seem to even be able to meet Aiba’s eyes in the morning. 

“Did you have sex?” Nino asks. He doesn’t even really care, but he figures it’ll be funny to see Aiba’s reaction. Maybe he’ll start laughing and his face will turn all red, or he’ll try to punch and Nino will be more than ready to sidestep out of the way... 

“Err,” Aiba says. 

“Oh,” Nino retracts. 

“I wanted to... but...” Aiba starts. 

Nino isn’t sure if he really wants to be in this conversation anymore. But he indicates to Aiba that he’s listening by pausing his game. 

“I wanted to,” Aiba continues. “But he said it’s not a good idea, if it’s in the group...” 

“Eh?” Nino says. 

“He doesn’t know that you and me...” Aiba starts, then he does something bold. He takes Nino’s DS and folds it in his hand, setting it on the table next to both of them. 

It’s been a long time since Aiba kissed Nino. Maybe a couple of years. Nino thought everyone in the group had to have known about it by now. Aiba has some issues with keeping his mouth shut. But if Sho knew, maybe he willfully forgot. 

“I think he wanted me,” Aiba says, pressing a soft kiss to Nino’s lips, and Nino lets him, opening his lips against Aiba’s. 

They’re in the break room and Nino supposes anyone could easily walk in. If it’s one of the other guys, he always figured he didn’t care. But if it was Sho... would it really be okay? 

“I think he wanted me,” Aiba continues. “But I think he’s scared.” 

“Do you like him?” Nino asks, while Aiba kisses gently down his neck. 

“I wanted him too,” Aiba says, breathing lightly against Nino’s skin. He shivers. 

“That’s not what I asked,” Nino says, thinly. 

Aiba doesn’t say any more. And that’s the answer to the question. 

\---

Jun knows that Nino and Aiba were kissing in the dressing room. He knows because the moment he walks in, Aiba flies about twenty feet in the air. Nino pats his hair down, leaning against the sofa. But what really gives it away is the fact that Nino is just lying there with his DS closed up on the table. 

He doesn’t say anything. Because they’re allowed to do what they want, he supposes. He has to get ready for filming a commercial, which means he has to get in a car to the studio, sit through makeup and hair and going over his lines a couple of times. 

Right now, though, he’s watching the way Aiba runs his finger over his lips. A little moist, which he can see when the light catches him in just the right way. 

“Are you busy?” Jun asks Nino.

Nino shrugs. 

“Will you go over my lines with me?” 

Nino shrugs again. 

\---

Sho acts strange and stiff at work for a few days, but he relaxes when his schedule picks up and he’s too busy to have a lot of extra time to spend in the dressing room. In those days, Aiba takes every opportunity he can to steal kisses from Nino. And Nino doesn’t mind. Aiba is a friend, and he’s also a good kisser. 

And he needs this right now. That much is clear. 

“I guess I do like him,” Aiba says, matter of factly against Nino’s lips. “The way people like each other sometimes, you know?” 

It’s so vague, but Nino kind of does know what he means. Not the way that you love someone. Not even the way you have a crush. But a comfortable kind of like that doesn’t completely swallow you up if it’s not returned but is always there somehow. 

“I guess he likes you too,” Nino says. “Just... you know. He’s Sho.” 

“Yeah,” Aiba says. Then pushes Nino back against the sofa and deepens the kiss. 

\---

Jun arrives at the office before anyone else. He usually expects to be alone at this time. The room is silent when he pushes open the door. But then he hears the scratch of a pencil against paper and he sees Ohno standing behind his sketchbook, too absorbed in what he’s doing to notice Jun there at all. 

It’s best not to disturb him, Jun thinks, so he sits down at the table with a cup of coffee in one hand and a magazine in the other. 

What does the drawing look like now? He wonders, flipping the page in his magazine even though he’s not really paying attention to what’s there. He’s filming another commercial later and should probably be practicing his lines. But he can’t think about anything else now except what the lines of Aiba’s body must look like on that sheet of paper. 

“Ah,” Ohno says, looking up from the drawing. “Good morning.” 

“Morning,” Jun says over his mug of coffee. 

“Did you just get here?” 

“Yes,” Jun says, even though by now it was about ten minutes ago. 

Ohno puts his pencil down and comes around to the front of the sofa, lying down on his back. 

“You can look at it if you want to,” he says. “You know, since you were interested in it before...” 

Jun feels a slight pang of embarrassment, but he gets up anyway to take a look. 

\---

There are tensions between the five of them at work. Not something that anyone who didn’t know the five of them would notice. But Aiba can feel it, thick and uncomfortable. Sho is quiet and professional and Aiba feels like he has to talk more just to fill up the silence. 

“Don’t push yourself,” Nino tells him, when they’re alone in the hallway. He has to know, though, that Aiba is going to push himself if it means making things comfortable in the group again. 

He does want to give things a try with Sho and he feels himself tensing up whenever Sho is near him. But it can’t be helped if that’s the way he feels. Sho isn’t really the type to put everything on the line for a risk like that. What if they broke up and it affected the group? What if someone found out? 

Still, it feels like things already have changed. 

Nino tells Aiba not to push himself three more times that day. Each time, his shoulders are tighter than the last. 

After work, Aiba goes to Nino’s place. This time he stays overnight and doesn’t leave until early in the morning, when Nino is still asleep. 

\---

“Is this okay?” Nino asks Sho. Bluntly. Not unkindly, but bluntly. He doesn’t want to fight or argue. But he does need to ask. 

“Hm?” Sho says. 

“You know what I mean right?” Nino says. 

It’s just the two of them, separated from the group today so they can do a photoshoot together. It’s convenient for Nino. Maybe not so convenient for Aiba, but Nino knows this is the only way to get through to Sho. 

“I don’t really want to talk about that,” Sho says, stiffly. He’s so stiff lately that Nino thinks the only thing that’s going to loosen him up is getting him very, very drunk. Which might not be such a good idea while they’re still at work. 

But he can at least get him some tea. He goes over to the refreshment table provided by the staff and gets Sho a warm cup. The silly things he does for Aiba... 

They sit quietly side by side. The staff put them through hair and makeup and Sho doesn’t say a word the whole time, but just before they enter the studio he sets down his finished cup of tea. 

“It’s only because of work,” Sho says. He’s looking straight ahead of him, arm touching Nino’s shoulder as they stand side by side. 

“It’s important to keep things professional,” Nino says. 

“It is,” Sho says. 

“You should tell him that.” 

“What?” 

“Tell him you’re his friend,” Nino says. “He’ll go back to normal if you tell him that.” 

“But he knows that,” Sho says. 

“If he hears it from you,” Nino says. “He’ll be okay.” 

\---

Jun can feel the tensions too. They don’t involve him directly, so he tries to keep his distance. But the more things unfold and the longer they go on, the more it feels like he needs to do or say something.

He’s seen Aiba and Nino kissing in the breakroom, in the hall, in Nino’s car after work. It makes his heart beat faster every time he sees it. He always makes a noise whenever he enters a room they might be in. A cough or a scuff of his shoe, something to let them know he’s there so they can pretend that’s not what they were just doing. 

But of course he always knows by the way Aiba’s lips are red and swollen and that’s when his heart really jumps. 

It’s dangerous for them to go on like this. What if they get caught? 

\---

The tensions smooth out after Sho presumably talks to Aiba. Nino isn’t sure when and where it happens, but one morning a few days later, Sho and Aiba smile at each other when they say their good mornings in a way that makes Nino feel calm. That makes the whole room feel calm. 

It’s like Aiba says. When you like someone in the way that you just like them. Maybe you don’t love them and maybe going back to being friends is possible. 

It is possible here, Nino thinks, and maybe even everyone can feel it. Jun turns a page of his magazine and Nino can see a small smile behind the cover. 

Ohno stays quietly behind his sketchpad. 

\---

Maybe the wave of relief that washed over everyone when things went back to normal hit Jun the wrong way. Maybe he was supposed to feel good and like everything was the way it should be. But instead, he’s felt more restless than ever. 

Nino and Aiba have stopped their messing around, but Jun hasn’t stopped coughing when he enters a room. Just in case, he thinks, but maybe he’s even a little disappointed. Even if he has no idea what that means at all. 

He steps into the breakroom. This time no one is in there but Ohno. He’s not sketching, but instead just staring at the paper, tilting his head at different angles, squinting. 

“How’s it coming, Leader?” Jun asks since his cough already got Ohno’s attention. 

“It’s finished,” Ohno says. “I think.” 

“Oh?”

“Want to see?” 

Jun hasn’t sat down yet, so instead he just changes course and winds around to the other end of the room. Whether by accident or design, the sketchpad is placed under one of the ceiling lights. The shadows look even more prominent here. 

It’s Aiba. Really looks like him, too. Maybe a real memory from Ohno’s mind of Aiba in front of him, reaching back. The drawing looks so real it’s as if he’s about to shout “come on!” and stretch his hand further. 

Jun looks from his fingertips all the way up his arm, the way the drawing started, then up his neck and to his face. His lips. Always swollen after kissing Nino for what must have been hours every day. 

He wants to do that too. Wants to make Aiba’s lips look like that, knowing they’re red and swollen like that because of him. He wants Aiba to press him against the sofa, the way Aiba did to Nino that time they didn’t move apart fast enough when he entered the room. He wants...

“Great,” Jun mutters to himself, stepping away from the drawing. 

“You okay?” Ohno asks. 

“It’s a really good drawing,” he says. “I mean it.” 

Then he turns around to leave. 

\---

Ohno gets a feeling. Nino gets a feeling too and perhaps it’s the same feeling at the same time because the room goes quiet when all five of them are in it together. It’s like they’ve all forgotten how and where to sit or how to just be normal together. 

Nino knows because of the way Jun looked at Aiba every time he caught them together. But he doesn’t think even Aiba noticed it. Or if he did, he doesn’t know even what he noticed. 

Jun is the first to sit down. But when Sho moves to sit down, Nino swings over to him and grabs his arm. 

“You owe me coffee,” he says. 

“What?” Sho raises an eyebrow. 

“That time you said you’d get me coffee,” Nino says, looking at Sho intensely.

“I don’t remember--” 

“You owe me too,” Ohno says, standing at Sho’s other side. 

Ohno knows because of the way Jun was looking at his drawing. Looking at the sketch and looking like he didn’t know what to do with his own hands. Folded, straight down at his sides, crossed over his chest. The way he takes a peek at the picture even when he doesn’t know Ohno is looking at all. 

“Yeah,” Nino says. “You owe Ohno-san coffee too and, I mean, look at him. He needs it.” 

Sho sighs. The three of them exit the room. 

Nino mouths to Jun just before they leave through the doorway. “Go,” is what he says. 

\---

The room is quiet for a beat. 

“You want to kiss me right?” Aiba says. Like he’s used to saying that now. He says it so simply, Jun is taken aback. 

“It’s not like that,” Jun says. Is it just because he saw Aiba with Nino? Is that the only reason?

But something about it feels deeper than that. Like maybe it’s something that’s been there longer than even Jun realized. Something he could never quite let himself feel. 

“I,” Jun starts. The best way to say it is just simply, probably, considering Aiba’s approach. “I want you to kiss me.” 

He wants to add too that he won’t take it back. Maybe Sho couldn’t go there. That’s just how he is. But Jun can because there is something about Aiba and feeling this way about Aiba that is new and familiar all at the same time. He’s not going to say any of this out loud. Ever. But Aiba, somehow, will probably realize. 

“You want me to kiss you?” Aiba asks. 

“I’m not going to say it again,” Jun says. 

Aiba is sensitive. It’s something Jun knows really well and something Aiba doesn’t share with others. If he’s worried or scared, he pushes it down deep inside. If he’s hurting or upset he pushes it down even deeper. 

“Can I do more than kiss you?” Aiba asks, taking a step closer. 

“Don’t push it,” Jun says. By which he means yes. Fuck, yes, but he’s not going to ask for anything because that would be embarrassing. Aiba’s going to have to just know. 

Which he seems to, the way he closes the space between them and wraps his arms around Jun’s back, leaning in to kiss him deep. 

\---

“Aren’t you going to finish it?” Nino asks, leaning on Ohno’s shoulder just staring at the drawing. 

“It’s finished already,” Ohno shrugs. 

“But Aiba is missing a leg...” 

“It’s as finished as it needs to be, I guess,” Ohno says. 

“Well alright then,” Nino says. “Good job, Leader. Another masterpiece.” 

“Shut up,” Ohno says. But he’s smiling and it makes Nino smile too. 

\---

Aiba and Jun are both twenty minutes late to work the next morning. 

Sho is polite enough to pretend he doesn’t notice. 

Nino plans on giving both of them hell in about one month when it’s safe. 

Ohno starts in on another drawing. This time it’s a bird. One that probably won’t make anyone want to kiss anyone else. Probably.


End file.
